Most Japanese names use kanji but when they use kana they usually use hiragana. Except that names of actors are usually given in katakana (IIRC).

Here's the closest I've come up with. I am open to any suggestions of a better transliteration. (Especially on my sur name)

ハ-トクリストファ-です

ハート・クリストファー

Note the correct ー and the use of a ・ so they can tell where the two names begin and end. You will almost certainly get people confusing surname and first name so you might want to do something about that as well.

How do I get the right ー and the ・ typed in? I'm still working on learning the IME tricks for these things. I hope it's consistent between Mac, Slack, and Win. (I use a Mac at work, my desktop at home uses Slack, and my laptop uses Win. At least my with my pocket pc, I can just write what I want, without the fuss of IME.

Does this look better (I copied and pasted the ー and ・ )

私はクリストファー・ハートです

And when learning naming orders, I have been confused by people that just say first name and last name. If only the terms given name and surname or family name were more common.

I was originally thinking in Japanese isn't the name order usually surname first, given name last?

Last edited by Chris Hart on Wed 12.27.2006 10:58 am, edited 1 time in total.

私のかなで書いた名前は「リチャード・バンハウテン」です。
(Yes, I know that the Van Houten chocolate company uses a different transliteration, but that's (originally) a Dutch company, and my family's been in America among English speakers for centuries. The pronunciation has shifted a bit.)